1. Field of the Invention
The present invention relates to a pallet conveyer for use in a production line, and more particularly to a pallet conveyer whose construction is flexible in accordance with a change in the production line such as a change of the number of steps on the same production line.
2. Related Art
Conventionally, there are various kinds of production lines wherein a specific working machine or robot is disposed to each process or step such as an assembling process or soldering process, and work pieces are seriatim fed to each work station of the working machine or the robot though a conveyer such as a belt conveyer. The work pieces are sequentially put on a pallet which serves to position and support the work pieces during each process. The conveyer conveys a large number of such pallets thereon to intermittently fed the pallets from one work station to another after the working machines and robots complete the respective steps. The intermittent conveying operation is controlled by a servo motor or the like, for example, as disclosed in JPA 3-18504.
Because the work pieces are fed from one step to another through the single intermittent conveyer in the above-described production line, the conveyer is easy to control so long as the steps on the projection line are maintained unchanged.
However, on eliminating or adding some steps from or to the production line, the formerly used conveyer is not applicable to the revised production line any more, because the conveyer has a construction specifically designed for the former production line. Because the conventional conveyer is not applicable to another kind of production line either, it is necessary to design and produce a new conveyer each time the production line is revised or a new production line is to be provided. This is one of the causes which have increased the initial production cost of an article.